Washington Alert: ESOP Supporter Joins Biden's Council of Economic Advisors

Economist Jared Bernstein has been selected to serve on by President-Elect Joseph Biden’s Council of Economic Advisors. For ESOP companies, the move is particularly good news because Bernstein is very familiar with ESOPs and the benefits they provide. In 2016, he authored a study showing that ESOPs help address wealth inequality in two ways: by providing stock to those who might otherwise be unable to afford it, and by providing more evenly distributed wages than other companies.

When the paper was released, Bernstein told Politico that companies with higher percentages of ESOP ownership also had lower levels of wage inequality. “There’s something about these firms that as they become more dedicated to employee ownership, they become more uncomfortable with the huge discrepancies in internal pay structures,” he told Politico.

Bernstein previously served as the chief economist to Biden during his tenure as Vice President in the Obama Administration. Bernstein is a Senior Fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy, and has served as the senior economist for the Living Standards Program at the Economic Policy Institute, and as the Deputy Chief Economist at the Department of Labor.

Official Announcement: https://buildbackbetter.gov/nominees-and-appointees/jared-bernstein/